


The Consequences

by TranslucentAirlines



Category: Grand Theft Auto V, Into The Storm (2014), RWBY
Genre: Body Horror, Destruction, F/M, Natural Disasters, Past Character Death, Past Violence, Survival Horror, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2019-08-28 11:45:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16722735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TranslucentAirlines/pseuds/TranslucentAirlines
Summary: Pyrrha joins forces with a young storm chaser to escape from Arkandra after a massive tornado strikes the city, but as the survivors of the disaster turn against one-another, she quickly realizes they are still in danger.





	1. drive

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes place on Earth, in the United States, in Oklahoma, in the year 2024. Aura and Semblances are still used here.
> 
> My writing style is third-person and present-tense. The title of my chapters come before the chapter number rather than chapter number followed by title.
> 
> This fic marks my second attempt at a rape sequence. Trigger warnings for rape and body horror. I'm a little slow with beginnings; please don't hurt me for that.
> 
> Arkandra is an original and fictional city.
> 
> Pyrrha Nikos and the remaining characters of Rwby are property of Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum. (Rest in peace, bro.)

**drive \ chapter one**

**\----**

The man talks aggressively on his phone as he sits in the parking lot.

He has a large, bushy red beard and blue overalls on, underneath which he is wearing a Carpathia Knights jersey.

"Raeys, I am giving you _one_   _minute_ , and you had _better be in this car,_ or so help me I will beat the _crap_ -"

Raeys, on the other end - <Shut up Don, I'm almost finished, god-dang.>

Don - "Then hurry the fuck up!"

The sky to the southwest is becoming increasingly dark.

An alarm sounds within the Dust store. A couple seconds later, Don's stocky, heavyset partner in crime, Raeys, rushes out with a bag full of red Dust crystals.

Don - "About damn time!"

Raeys, as he gets in the car - " _Just_! Shut the _fuck_ up! And _drive_!"

Don starts the car and floors it.

Raeys glowers at the red-bearded man. "Are you serious?! You didn't even start the damn car?!"

Don delivers a powerful elbow to Raeys' ribs.

"You told me to be ready, you didn't say to have the car on! You want me to save gas, remember dumbass?!"

As they merge onto the sunken Interstate 44 with Don laying on the horn, a police cruiser gives chase.

The driver of the police car yells into the microphone, <Arkandra Police! _Please_ , _stop_ your car, _now_!>

Don - "NO THANK YOU!"

Don stomps on the gas pedal. The car shoots forward with enough force to push both men backwards into the seats.

Police - <What part of "stop your car", do you not understand?!>

Don - "Raeys, I need you to lose those fucks."

Raeys reaches in the backseat and grabs a machine gun. Pointing it out the window, he starts firing at the cops.

The first few bullets miss, but on his second try, he hits the police car's flashing lights. The lights erupt in a shower of sparks. More bullets crack the windshield, and finally, a tire. The tire shreds, pieces flying in every direction. The police car careens into the K-rail in the center of the freeway, flips over to the other side, and hits a fuel truck, which promptly explodes.

Raeys pulls his body back into the car.

Raeys, nonchalantly - "Got 'em."

Don - "Alright."

A minute later, they leave the freeway, turning north onto 6-lanes-wide Dunkelman Street.

They arrive at The Carlisle, an apartment tower overlooking the Shawcross River, three miles west of Downtown Arkandra.

Raeys spots a woman with long red hair, jogging past the building. His eyes light up, and he taps Don's shoulder.

Raeys - "Hey Don, you think we should celebrate?"

Don looks in the same direction as Raeys' finger. Upon seeing the jogging woman, his eyebrows shoot up.

Don - "Oh yes I do think we should celebrate."

**\- -**

She is wearing a pair of black skintight joggers that broadcast her wide, shapely hips, and a short top that outlines her medium-sized breasts and exposes her smooth, flat midriff. She has her long fire-red hair pulled into a ponytail that stretches all the way down her back. She has her phone strapped to her arm, with earbuds leading up her shoulder.

Her phone vibrates with a notification. She stops jogging and pulls the strapped phone off her arm, panting as she looks intently at the screen with her electric-green eyes.

The notification is a message from her new ex-boyfriend.

=Hey Pyrrha it's me I'm sorry will you take me back=

She huffs, left-swipes the notif, and stuffs her phone into her pocket.

Pyrrha leans on the fence guarding the mile-wide Shawcross River, gazing out over its beautiful water. She can see a pleasure boat on the other side, chugging along slowly.

Pyrrha shifts her gaze to the western sky. It is growing steadily dark. Blue-grey storm clouds form a huge circle shape about ten miles to the southwest. She can see streaks of grey hanging off the bottoms of the clouds, signaling torrential rain.

The wind pucks up a little bit, and Pyrrha decides then that her daily jog is over early today.

The next thing Pyrrha sees when she turns around is the barrel of a machine gun pointed right at her face.


	2. come

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha endures ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning - rape.

_Lisa Lavender - "As multiple sources have stated already, a tornado has formed in Oklahoma, having touched ground in Fletcher, completely destroying the city. Experts believe the destruction of Fletcher reflects the damage of an EF5 tornado. The tornado currently has wind speeds of more than 320 miles per hour, traveling in a northeast direction along Interstate 44. In its path are the city of Arkandra and the Oklahoma City metropolitan area."_

**come \ chapter two**

**\----**

Pyrrha gasps and throws her hands to the sky in surrender. The fat man holding the weapon motions to his ear, indicating he wants her to remove her headphones. Pyrrha does so shakily.

Big Man - "Obey. Or die. Your choice. Choose wisely."

The man with the red beard to his right steps forward.

Red-Beard - "Turn off your phone, and come with us."

Pyrrha speaks up in a shaky voice. "What are you going to do to me?"

Big Man - "What the hell part of 'Obey or die' did you not understand?!"

Pyrrha's takes a shaky, scared breath as the Big Man jabs his machine gun into the center of her chest.

Pyrrha - "O-okay, you win! You-you win. Just please don't hurt me."

Red Beard - "Turn off your phone and come with us. Do it now."

Pyrrha fumbles with her phone for a number of seconds due to shaky hands. When the phone begins to turn off, Pyrrha puts it back in her pocket. She then puts her hands up again.

Red Beard - "Turn around and walk slowly toward that apartment tower."

Pyrrha can only imagine how this will end for her. She clearly sees both men staring at her body. She silently curses herself for deciding not to wear more clothes.

As she begins to walk, one of the men grabs her firm, toned rear end. She gasps and turns around.

Big Man hits her in the face with his machine gun, causing her Aura to flare up in a brilliant red. Pyrrha is knocked off her feet and lands on the ground on her back. The impact crushes the breath out of her lungs.

Big Man - "I didn't say turn back around keep walking forward keep walking forward keep walking forward! Get the fuck up!"

Pyrrha puts a hand to her chest, struggling to breathe. It takes about thirty seconds for her to catch her breath. Pyrrha then makes her mind up.

Kicking off the ground, landing perfectly on her feet, Pyrrha deals a crushing blow to Big Man's face. He lets out a short scream and drops the machine gun.

"Shit!"

Red Beard lands several well-placed punches to Pyrrha's ribs. She screams in agony as her ribs are snapped in half with each punch. One more punch lands between her breasts, breaking her sternum. Pyrrha flies backward with a shockwave, crashing through the apartment tower's glass doors.

Pyrrha slumps to the floor, unconscious.

**\- -**

Don (Red Beard) - "Hey Reays, you okay bro? I got her."

Raeys (Big Man) - "Aw, she broke my damn nose!"

Don - "Here, let me see."

Don looks intently at Raeys' crooked nose, then he uses one hand to force it back into place with a sickening crunch.

Raeys - "Aaaawwww! ... Thanks bro."

Don - "Yeah."

Raeys - "Where's that girl?"

Don - "In the apartment entrance."

Raeys - "Help me carry her to the room?"

Don - "Yup"

As the two men saunter into The Carlisle, the sky begins to dump rain on the city of Arkandra.

**\- -**

It takes about two minutes for Don and Raeys to take Pyrrha to their room on the fourteenth floor. Just outside the door to the room however, their neighbor stops them.

Neighbor - "Hey guys."

Don - "Hey Bryan."

Bryan - "You may want to hunker down and have supplies ready."

Raeys - "Ready for what."

Bryan - "They just spotted a funnel cloud a couple miles southwest of the city."

Raeys looks down at the woman they are carrying. "We have to take care of her first. We just found her passed out in the entrance to the building."

Bryan - "Alright. Y'all take care."

Don - "Yeah."

They make sure Bryan has left.

Don - "That was almost bad."

Raeys chuckles.

Don, mockingly - "'Found her passed out in the entrance' ..."

Raeys - "Well, it wasn't a lie."

Don - "Yeah."

Raeys opens the door.

Pyrrha starts regaining consciousness.

Raeys - "We need to get her tied down."

Don - "Yup."

"Do we have any tape?"

"Yeah."

They rest Pyrrha on the table on her back, Don grabs a roll of duct tape and straps the woman's wrists and ankles to the legs of the table. It is then that Pyrrha comes to, gasping in pain at her broken ribs. Her Aura fizzles, going to work as the injuries are painfully healed.

Raeys begins fondling the bound redhead as Don watches him. Pyrrha looks wildly around, her eyes settling on Don.

Pyrrha, gasping - "Let me go."

Raeys pretends to consider her plea. "Mmmm - no deal."

Pyrrha "Please, I'll do anything you want me to, just don't -"

Raeys slaps her face with such force it whips her head to the side. "Shut it."

Don - "Y'know, maybe we shouldn't be doing this."

Raeys - "Oh well."

Raeys positions himself between Pyrrha's legs, yanking her joggers and pantyhose down, exposing her unmarked entrance.

Don - "Well are you sure we should - okay."

Raeys unzips his own pants and fishes out his enormous, hard rod, aiming the head toward her slit.

Pyrrha's eyes turn to pinpricks. "Please ... don't do it."

Raeys responds by slamming his entire length into the woman's body, causing Pyrrha to scream in agony. Don situates himself in front of Pyrrha's face and shoves himself down her throat, effectively cutting off her air. After several minutes, both men stay hilted inside her as they release their warm loads into her body. Pyrrha can feel her womb getting warm. Neither man removes himself from her body for another minute.

As Pyrrha is on the verge of fainting from lack of air, Don finally withdraws, allowing Pyrrha suck in a long, ragged gasp of air before descending into a coughing fit.

Raeys pulls out after climaxing into the woman and zips his cargo pants back up.

Don clothes himself again. Walking to the living room, he grabs the remote, turning the TV on.

Pyrrha sinks into a silent sob. "Oooohh ... "

Don - "What are we going to do to her?"

Raeys - "Probably keep -"

Don is confused by Raeys' words trailing off. "Hey. You alive bro?"

Raeys looks intently at the Tv, which is broadcasting the Weather Channel.

Raeys - "Don. Down to the first floor. Now!"

Don looks at the screen as well. His face pales.

The headline on the Tv reads

<3-MILE-WIDE TORNADO IN ARKANDRA>

**\----**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know, the rape sequence sucks, so kindly, shut up. As a consequence of the original scene's poor quality, I've modified it to be less graphic, but it still stands.


	3. wind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is here where we are introduced to Donnie. In the movie "Into The Storm", his father's name is Gary, but his name is never mentioned within the story for a reason you'll figure out when you get to the next chapter.
> 
> I wrote this chapter's summary on Monday, May 20th, 2019. Today is the anniversary of the deadly Moore tornado of 2013. The tornado killed 24 people. It was an EF5 tornado, the most powerful level of tornado you can ever experience. Sadly, seven children were among the deceased when the storm passed. It occured exactly six years ago, to the day - Monday, May 20th, 2013.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reporter mentions two fictional cities in his summation at the beginning of the chapter - Arkandra (I created it myself specifically for the story) and Silverton (yes, the town from the 2014 movie "Into the Storm").
> 
> Arkandra is a fairly large city, roughly the size of Oklahoma City. Silverton is on the small side, with a population of only roughly 12-thousand, which is significantly more people than we saw during "Into The Storm". Both cities are situated along Interstate 44.
> 
> If you were to look at a map of Oklahoma, Arkandra would be just to the northeast of the cities of Lawton and Fletcher, and Silverton (since the movie didn't give us that city's location within Oklahoma) would be about halfway between the two real-life cities of Chickasha and Bridge Creek.
> 
> Just an oversight - While it is obvious that no Shawcross River exists in Oklahoma where Arkandra is, I did not think about it when I first conceived this fanfic. As soon as I referenced the Moore tornado of 2013 in a later chapter, I gave the story a slight overhaul. So, just pretend there really is a Shawcross River. That's what I'm doing. And if it wasn't obvious before this, the Shawcross River is named after one of the main producers of RWBY, Kerry Shawcross.

_Reporter - "Alright it looks like the area of concern here is the entire Arkandra metropolitan area. Due to the destruction of Fletcher, the National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Emergency for Arkandra and all other cities along Interstate 44, that does include, Arkandra, Chickasha, Silverton, Bridge Creek, Moore, Oklahoma City, Stroud, Bristow, and Tulsa. We do have a confirmed tornado on the ground in Arkandra. The tornado is just over three miles wide, with windspeeds of up to - AAAAWW! This tornado just leveled a Walmart in the University District. It has sustained windspeeds of more than 350 miles per hour! This is _definitely!_  An EF5!"_

**wind \ chapter three**

**\----**

A young man sits in the passenger seat of his father's car, looking at the Weather Channel app on his phone. On the radar, a huge area of red, orange, yellow and green blobs is hovering above the city of Miles-Luna, fifteen miles southwest of Arkandra along Interstate 44.

His position near the northeast end of the supercell is indicated by a blue dot with a blue arrow pointing away from it.

The father is outside the car taking video of the huge storm.

Father - "Donnie, how we looking?"

Donnie gets out of the car and approaches his father. "The supercell is looking good, updraft in the center hitting 95 miles per hour, Dad, I think we should issue a tornado warning."

A giant black wedge can be seen to the southwest.

Donnie - "Oh my god. Dad, the tornado's already on the ground. That entire shape right there, _is_ the tornado.

Father - "I see her. She's coming."

A bolt of lightning illuminates the sky around the dark shape. A series of bright blue flashes erupts near the right side of the tornado as it hits a power plant.

Father - "She's coming. In the car. Now."

Donnie runs back to the car, his father tailing him. As they scramble in, a huge hailstone crashes through the windshield.

Donnie - "Jeez! Dad we need to get away from here!"

Father turns the hazard lights on and stomps on the gas pedal. The hail pounds on their car as they speed down Interstate 44 toward Arkandra. Other drivers honk as they pass, but upon seeing the wall of darkness behind them, they gun it as well. Everyone on the other side of the freeway is stopped, with nowhere to go to escape the tornado.

Father - "Donnie, call it in."

Donnie calls Emergency Management.

EM - <Hello.>

Donnie - "Yes. I need you to issue a Tornado Emergency for Arkandra."

EM - <Okay, will do. What is your position?>

Donnie - "We are on Interstate 44 about ten miles southwest of Arkandra. The tornado's right on our tail. It's about three miles wide with windspeeds in excess of 370 miles per hour, travelling northwest at 80 miles per hour."

EM - "Oh my god."

Donnie - "I don't think we're able to -"

The line cuts out.

"Hello?! Damn!"

Father honks at two semi trailers moving slowly in the left two lanes.

"Dad, the tornado's getting too close to us!"

In the rearview mirror, all Donnie's father can see is all the vehicles a half-mile behind them being swept to the left by a wall of dust.

Father - "Shit. She's gonna get us. Her wind field is too big."

**\- -**

Pyrrha is left on the table, gasping for breath. Don pulls up her pantyhose and joggers and cuts the tape off of her.

Don says softly so that only she can hear, "I'm sorry."

Pyrrha looks up at him through teary eyes.

Raeys - "Bro! You seriously think we have time for that?! Let's go!"

Raeys and Don hurry out the door.

Pyrrha falls off the table and onto the floor on her back. She struggles to get back up. Her legs, belly, and breasts are sore from the attack.

She sniffles and takes her phone out of her pocket, turning it on. After about two minutes, Pyrrha gets a notification.

=TORNADO EMERGENCY - ARKANDRA=

She gasps.

Running to the living room, she eyes the television that her two attackers left on. A shot of a wall of black destruction is on the screen, being shrouded by static that is getting worse by the second.

Reporter - <We do have a confirmed tornado on the ground in Arkandra. The tornado is just over three miles wide, with windspeeds of up to ->

A chill runs down Pyrrha's spine as she looks. A large retail building on the side of the Shawcross River is suddenly and completely destroyed. As this happens, the reporter and several offscreen people yell < _Aaaaww!_ >

Reporter - <This tornado just leveled a Walmart in the University District. It has sustained windspeeds of more than 350 miles per hour, this is _definitely_ , an EF5!>

Pyrrha can feel the apartment vibrating, the vibrations growing into tremors. Running to the kitchen window, her face pales.

The tornado is right there. And it is coming for her.

**\----**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Donnie's father means when he says "her wind field is too big" is that they are about to be hit by the tornado's outer circulation winds. It is a lesson I learned after watching an hour-long video about the 2013 El Reno tornado. This tornado was the largest in recorded history, with a peak size of 2.6 miles wide. Several storm-riders were caught severely off-guard, not only by the size of the tornado, but by its outer circulation winds. One amateur storm-rider was caught in a powerful wind just ahead of the tornado, and his car was performing poorly because the wind was pulling the car towards the tornado, but this particular storm rider was lucky and he escaped. Several others were not that lucky.
> 
> Contrary to popular belief, tornadoes do not have to touch something to destroy it. In movies, it is common to see tornadoes that creep up on a building until they are right next to it, but the building only falls apart when the tornado "touches" it with its funnel. That is not the case in real life, as we saw during the El Reno tornado. The tornado is capable to destroying things without being right next to them. So I used that knowledge to write my story.


	4. down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha and Donnie experience the tornado. Pyrrha is doing so for the first time, but for Donnie, it is the third tornado he has experienced in his life.
> 
> Before you start reading the chapter, you should be aware that there is an automatic typo in the chapter, in the form of a massive paragraph break, located directly after the line "The western wall of the tornado hits Pyrrha". It appears to be something the mobile website adds on its own. It's pissing me off because it isn't supposed to be right there, but I've gotten tired of removing it, so this time it will stay where it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so Remnant, the setting for "RWBY", does not seem to have thunderstorms or for that matter tornadoes. I just felt like adding them to the fic because I'm really interested in tornadoes. It probably doesn't matter anymore because I switched the setting from Remnant, to Earth.
> 
> Pyrrha only appears in here because she is my favorite character from RWBY, and she and I are a lot alike: we both are awkward around people, we both are very selfless, and we both are fiercely loyal to those we love. The only difference is, she knows how to put a whoopin' on people, and I can't fight worth crap.
> 
> The largest Earth tornado ever recorded was recorded in El Reno Oklahoma, on May 31, 2013. The tornado grew to just over 2-and-a-half miles wide, wider than Manhattan, and killed 4 storm hunters.  
> I say "Earth tornado" because tornadoes also occur in space. They have been observed on Mars, a distant Earth-like planet, and even on the sun.
> 
> If your are caught in a tornado in your car, stay in the car and get low. That is your safest bet. Do not try to hide under an overpass. That is actually the worst place to go.

**down \ chapter four**

**\----**

A truck flies from the tornado straight towards the window Pyrrha is in, crashing through the outside wall and exploding just as Pyrrha dives for cover. The tornado's winds, while the tornado itself is still a quarter-mile away, start destroying the apartment tower. As more and more of the walls are destroyed and removed, the ceiling and the floors above Pyrrha begin to collapse.

A piece of the ceiling lands on Pyrrha, pinning her on her back. The refrigerator topples onto the slab, crushing her under the combined weight. Pyrrha can barely breathe. The deafening winds tear through the apartment, causing glass to fall from the cupboards and papers to fly around.

Pyrrha takes a desperate gasp of air as her lungs are squeezed by the rubble on top of her. Then, she suddenly feels weightless. The debris on top of her seems to be floating, along with cups, chairs, pans, and boxes of food. It seems to be an eternity before Pyrrha is suddenly slammed down again. A large slab crushes her right leg below the knee. She lets out a blood-curdling scream of pain.

Pyrrha struggles to lift the slab pinning her down, but it grows heavier with every piece of debris that piles on top of it. The sounds of destruction are all around her, she is unable to drown them out, but she screams anyway.

Suddenly it is silent.

As Pyrrha takes limited, short breaths due to the slab, she can hear the crunching of concrete fading away.

She whispers to herself, "Is it over?"

Silence is the only answer.

Pyrrha continues to try to free her chest so she can breathe normally. After two minutes, the distant sound of an explosion makes her freeze.

She can hear the sounds of wind and crunching concrete again. The sounds are steadily growing louder. She comes to a horrible realization.

Pyrrha whispers, "The tornado's eye. I'm in the tornado's eye."

**\- -**

"Dad, she's gonna get us!"

"Calm down! Screamin' ain't gonna help - JEEZ!"

A city bus 🚌 falls from the sky, landing on the freeway right in front of their car. Donnie's father yanks the wheel to the left. The car loses traction, spinning out of control and crashing into the K-rail. Father throws the car into reverse and guns the engine, but the car does not move. The engine over-revs past four-thousand RPM. Father looks out the window at the rear tire. A large tree branch has been wedged under the car, lifting the tires off the ground. As Father floors it, the driving wheels spin unchecked by the road.

Father - " _Dammit!_ Donnie, get out and go for the overpass!"

Father looks at the wall of dark-blue wind behind his car. The tornado is just over a mile away and closing the distance fast.

Donnie - "Are you sure that's a good idea?!"

" _YES!"_

Donnie tries to open his door but the door is wedged shut. As his father is rolling down his window, Donnie punches his window out with his left hand and crawls out. Seeing his son punch the window, Father kicks the passenger door open. Donnie runs for cover under the six-lane overpass, following a small crowd of other people.

Father stumbles out of the car and scrambles to his feet, sprinting for the overpass as well.

The massive tornado's winds dislodge a huge green freeway sign, knocking the sign off its gantry. The sign spins towards Donnie's father.

"Dad, heads up!"

Donnie's father is bisected in half by the spinning sign. Donnie's eyes widen in horror as his father's upper half is carried through the overpass by the 350-mile-per-hour winds.

_"DAAAAAAAADD!"_

Several women scream as they witness the gruesome death.

Donnie has no time to waste now.

"Everybody get under this bridge  _now!"_

As the group of about twenty people hurry towards the overpass, a two-by-four hits one of them and he is swept away by the winds.

Donnie - "Get under the bridge now! Hold on to the beams now!"

Everyone alive in the group obey hastily, screaming in terror as the monster of dust and wind approaches. Several seconds later, the whole overpass is engulfed by the tornado, a sheet of water vapor moving at 350 miles per hour. All kinds of objects are crashing through the overpass - cars, busses, trees, glass shards. On several occasions, an explosion occurs underneath the overpass, but the fireball is instantly swept to the left. Donnie hangs onto the steel beams supporting the overpass for dear life, not feeling his hands and face being cut up by flying glass.

Suddenly the winds stops. Everything is still.

Breathing hard, Donnie cautiously raises his head to look.

A fiery car has landed underneath the overpass, having been tossed by the wind. Murmurs from the crowd are audible to him as he slowly checks the environment outside the overpass. Four guys follow him, examining the destruction.

To the west, Donnie sees a curtain of dark weather moving to the south, to the left. To the east, he sees the same curtain of weather, moving north, but again, to the left.

Realization dawns on him as the western wall approaches.

Donnie - " _IT ISN'T OVER YET! BACK TO THE BRIDGE_!"

All five men are almost back to the relative safety of the overpass when the western side of the tornado hits them. The four guys following Donnie are all swept away.

Immediately, Donnie is launched forward, crashing into a steel beam. Instinctively he claws at it with his bloodied hands. Misses the first beam, reaches for the second. A woman tries to pull him back in. Her strength is no match for the tornado powerful winds. One of Donnie's hands slips.

The winds of the tornado begin to tear the concrete overpass apart. Another woman goes flying with the wind, to her death.

A large airborne object, traveling too fast to be detected by the human eye, a car most likely, crashes into the base of the overpass and explodes, causing Donnie to lose his grip. He feels weightless, and for a few seconds, he can see individual shards of glass and splinters of concrete and wood, as they are all traveling at the same speed. Something hits him in the face, carving a dark-red canyon all the way down his face. Suddenly he is underwater.

The Shawcross River is cold but clear, turbulent on the surface but still calm deeper down. Donnie is being dragged to the bottom of the river by ... something. Already his lungs are aching, having not had the chance to inhale properly before being submerged. As he hits the bottom, pieces of concrete start settling around him, beginning to blot out the light on the surface. Of he is not quick, his small space will close up and he will drown. The jagged piece of metal that tugged him to the riverbed is entangled in his jeans. Grunting with effort, he rips a hole in his jeans, freeing himself, and he kicks upward. His left arm slashes against a sharp part of the metal, earning him an underwater scream of pain. Racing his released bubbles to the the surface, he frantically swims like a dolphin to reach the life-giving air.

His head breaks the surface, allowing him to take a ragged breath. Coughing on accidentally-swallowed river water, he looks to the west and sees nothing but rubble and fire. To the east, the tornado churns on, chainsawing through highrise buildings as if they were made of matchsticks.

Arkandra is being destroyed right before Donnie's eyes, and he can do nothing to prevent it.

**\- -**

As the sounds of destruction grow louder, Pyrrha's attempts to free herself grow more desperate. Pyrrha pushes upwards with all her strength, and she manages to move the slab a couple inches, though something in the rubble shifts and causes her to lose her grip. The slab slams back down on Pyrrha's chest. She gasps, taking short, scared breaths.

The western wall of the tornado hits Pyrrha.

 

 

Pyrrha screams in terror as the wind envelops her. The horrible sounds of howling wind, crunching concrete, and grinding metal drown out her screams. The weight on her chest becomes unbearable, crushing all the air out of her lungs. Pyrrha squeezes her eyes shut in pain. She opens her mouth to gasp, but no air comes in.

Suddenly the winds begin to sweep away the rubble on top of her. The weight on her chest disappears, allowing her to finally take a ragged breath. In seconds, she is able to move freely. Something hits her enclosure and explodes, shaking the ground and opening a hole in the enclosure about two feet wide.

Pyrrha starts crawling on her hands and knees toward the opening, only to feel searing pain in her broken leg. Choking back a scream, Pyrrha allows her Aura to go to work. The bones sticking out of her skin snap back into place and the skin seals itself up painfully.

Once healed, Pyrrha crawls to the opening of her enclosure and squeezes her body through.

Standing up carefully on her newly-healed leg, Pyrrha gazes at the destruction left behind.

Several gigantic fires have erupted in the rubble, with black smoke billowing furiously into the sky. Huge pieces of jagged concrete slabs lay everywhere. Twisted rebar is exposed in much of the rubble, some with deceased humans impaled on them. Cars lay in crushed, unrecognizable balls of metal.

To the west, the gleaming apartment towers on the shoreline are completely gone. The Mall of Arkandra has been totally destroyed. The once-beautiful Shawcross River is now full of debris and bodies.

All Pyrrha can see to the east is a wall of trash in the distance moving to the right - the tornado.

Overwhelmed by the destruction, Pyrrha sinks to her knees and begins to weep silently.

The massive tornado moves on into the distance, destroying everything in its path, until it is too far away to see.

Over the soft wind of pounding rain, Pyrrha hears suddenly hears splashing water, and she looks toward the sound.

Two-hundred yards into the river, somebody is thrashing around. The human swims for a few seconds and then stops moving.

Pyrrha throws herself toward the water, sprinting at thirty miles per hour. When she is waist-deep in the water she dives and swims furiously towards the human, who is sinking. About a hundred yards in, the human has disappeared beneath the surface of the water. Pyrrha takes a deep breath and dives underwater, continuing to swim at top speed.

The water is blurry and filled with debris, much of it sharp. Some metal slashes across her abdomen and she yelps, expelling a torrent of air bubbles. She blinks hard and looks around frantically, trying to locate the sinking human through the murky water. She sees a a human-shaped object come to rest on a large slab at the bottom of the river.

Exhaling slightly to relieve the growing pressure in her lungs, Pyrrha claws her way down to the person. She grabs him around the waist with one arm and kicks upwards. Her lungs are crying for air as she swims, having been weighed down by the person she is trying to save. If she lets him go, she can reach the surface in ten seconds, but she may never be able to locate the boy again. Pyrrha grips him tightly around his chest with one arm and tugs herself upwards with her free arm. She hits her head on something hard, cutting her scalp. She screams, releasing more of her air. After twenty more seconds, she breaks the surface, taking a loud gasp.

The river has become turbulent with the rain and wind. Thunder booms ahead, and Pyrrha groans in pain as the sound vibrates through her body, affecting her polarity Semblance.

She is occasionally being pulled underwater by the person she is holding beside her. In another two minutes, she is on the shore with her rescued human. She immediately begins CPR. Breathing air into him does not work for several seconds before the young man shutters awake, coughing up all the water in his lungs. Pyrrha helps him lean over, keeping her hand on his back to signal him to keep coughing it up.

The boy is finally breathing normally, and it is then that he takes a long look at Pyrrha.

"You saved me."

Pyrrha nods, smiling with tears in her eyes.

"Thank you."

She nods again.

"Welcome. I'm glad you're okay."

The boy sits up. He looks at Pyrrha's bright green eyes. "What's your name?"

"Pyrrha."

"My name's Donnie."

"Hi."

Donnie slowly gazes at the destruction around them. "Arkandra's gone."

Pyrrha chokes back a sob.

Donnie - "This tornado just ..."

Donnie's eyes fill up with tears as he remembers what happened.

"My dad ..."

Pyrrha holds him close as they both cry together.

**\----**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is a misconception that people who hide in overpasses are safe, because of a news crew and some civilians who survived an overpass tornado in Kansas in the early 1990s. Those people were lucky because of the engineering of the overpass they were hiding under, and due to the fact that the tornado they were hiding from was relatively weak and that the overpass did not sustain a direct hit.
> 
> But on May 3, 1999, three people were killed when they used that logic to hide from the devastating Bridge Creek F5 tornado using overpasses along Interstate 44. The Bridge Creek tornado hit three overpasses directly, killing one person at each location. After the tornado, scientists wisely revised their definition of a safe tornado shelter. Overpasses no longer fit into the categories for "safe".
> 
> In 2007, the Fujita Scale was revised to take building codes into account, and it became the Enhanced Fujita Scale. All tornado ratings since then and in the future carry an EF rating rather than just F. That is why all the tornadoes in this story are EF5.
> 
> The Enhanced Fujita Scale does not rate tornadoes based on wind speed. It rates them based on damage. The wind speeds ate only there to show what kind of damage can be produced by said winds.
> 
> It also is not possible to have a tornado rated higher than EF5. There is a reason why the EF scale does not go higher than that. It is because an EF5 tornado can produce unimaginable damage already. There literally is no point in having a tornado rated higher than EF5. Even if the tornado has winds of 470 miles per hour, it cannot be rated higher than EF5. The opposite effect happens if a tornado with high wind speeds produces very little damage. If the tornado has a wind speed of 470 miles per hour but it stays in the open country the whole time it's on the ground without destroying anything, then it cannot have an EF5 rating.
> 
> The 2013 El Reno tornado had a wind speed of 301 miles per hour, but it stayed in mostly open areas to the south and west of the city. It was originally related EF5 at first because the scientists who studied the tornado didn't abide by the Enhanced Fujita Scale's damage rule like they were supposed to, but the tornado was later downgraded to EF3. Had the tornado tracked directly through El Reno, it would have been rated EF5. But the city did not suffer a direct hit, and the tornado only destroyed a few poorly-constructed buildings.
> 
> I'm getting tired of explaining tje EF Scale to people, so if you want to, search the internet for "Enhanced Fujita Scale". It will tell you everything you need to know about tornado ratings.


	5. hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The immediate aftermath of the tornado.
> 
>  
> 
> A short chapter it is, I admit. I'm sorry. I just am horrible with the slower scenes. The more active scenes I can handle, but those tend to lead to the bigger chapters. You will know what I'm talking about while reading Chapter Ten.

 

**hand \ chapter five**

**\----**

The sky opens up with torrential rain, dumping it all on the destroyed city.

Pyrrha helps Donnie sit up in case he feels dizzy. He waves her hand off.

Donnie - "I'm okay. Really, I'm fine."

Pyrrha - "Oh. I'm sorry."

Donnie - "No, it's fine. I'm just ... I'm just ... fine."

Both young adults can hear the screams of trapped survivors.

Donnie - "Survivors. We have to help them."

Donnie struggles to stand up. Pyrrha helps him again, this time Donnie is grateful for it.

The thunder rumbles, sending waves of pain through Pyrrha's body. She grunts and hugs herself tightly with both arms.

Donnie - "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Pyrrha waits until the pain subsides. "This thunderstorm is affecting my Semblance. I have control over magnetism. By definition I can move and manipulate anything metal. But when I'm around a thunderstorm, the lightning and thunder interact with my Semblance, giving my intense pain all over my body, which concentrates in my torso and my head."

Donnie - "Do you know why this happens?"

Another wave of pain washes over her, making her grunt. As the pain fades, Pyrrha shakes her head.

Donnie sighs. "I'm sorry."

Pyrrha weakly nods her head. "Thank you."

Looking at her waterproof phone, she sees the current time is 1044 in the morning.

Both young adults are soaked to the skin, and although the rain itself is warm, the windchill is significant. Pyrrha and Donnie are shivering in their sopping clothes.

Donnie takes a moment to really take a look at his rescuer. She is one of the most gorgeous women he has ever seen. She has long, cherry-red hair and electric-green eyes. She is wearing a midriff-baring crop top and simple yoga pants, both black.

Pyrrha has recovered from her panting and is eyeing Donnie curiously. He notices, and he shifts his gaze to the debris-filled river, his face red with embarrassment. Pyrrha smiles slightly. Donnie is quiet the bashful boy, a handsome specimen in her eyes, wearing a grey and blue Arkandra Shock hoodie and blue jeans that look freshly ripped. His straight hair and eyes are brown, his eyes carrying a look of guilt.

Pyrrha breaks the silence. "We have to find a place to take shelter, and when the rain stops, we can change our clothes."

Donnie - "Okay."

Pyrrha spots a destroyed building that still has one wall partially standing. Just above that is a section of the floor above it that has not collapsed yet. Pyrrha sees a large door lean on the side.

Pyrrha - "We can go in there." Donnie nods and follows her to the rubble.

**\- -**

The rain band moves on to the east at 1132.

Pyrrha - "I can't believe this just happened." She is looking toward the ground with sorrow, no doubt traumatized by the tornado.

Donnie - "Me neither."

Pyrrha decides to make the first move. Cautiously poking her head out of their "shelter", she looks around slowly for signs of danger. She knows her attackers may have survived the tornado, and she wants avoid them if they are still alive and roaming around.

Pyrrha - "Coast is clear."

Donnie is confused. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Pyrrha - "We could have some thugs out here picking on survivors."

Donnie's right eye is squinting at her. "Wait what?"

Pyrrha speaks quickly. "You never know. Come on."

As if on cue, Pyrrha and Donnie hear gunfire coming from the other side of the river, followed by two explosions.

She reaches her hand into the space, inviting Donnie to take it. Donnie decides to trust her, and he grabs her hand. She lifts him out of the space with one arm, setting him down safely on his feet.

Donnie is amazed. He opens his mouth to speak, but Pyrrha beats him to it.

Pyrrha - "I can bench-press 355 pounds."

Donnie - "Jeez."

Pyrrha - "Just before the tornado hit The Carlisle, it destroyed a Walmart on the other side of the river. We need to get over there to gather clothes, food, water, anything we may need. Then we need to leave Arkandra. This city is no longer safe for us to remain. It is with a heavy heart that I say we cannot help the survivors like we wanted to. It is the first time I've ever made this decision. So ... Let's go."

Donnie looks deep into Pyrrha's bright green eyes. "Okay."

Pyrrha offers her hand to him again. He takes it with his own hand, and together they begin their trek.

**\----**


	6. bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha uses her Semblance in an impressive way in order to save Donnie during their first encounter with hostile survivors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think it's possible for a tornado to be 3 miles wide, but in the near future, it probably will be.
> 
> As I have mentioned before, the largest tornado ever recorded was the 2013 El Reno tornado.
> 
> No further notes here, feel free to continue.

_Lisa Lavender - "As it appears, the tornado cut a three-mile-wide swath through the heart of Arkandra. More than 10-percent of the city has been totally destroyed. The tornado went on a path that took it straight through the downtown core at EF5 intensity. No city's downtown has ever been struck directly by an EF5 tornado.  This is unprecedented at a level nobody has ever seen."_

_Weatherman - "This is indeed the largest tornado ever recorded. And it does not seem to be the end of it. A larger tornado outbreak is underway across the entire region. We have gotten reports of nearly a thousand tornadoes, but only about four-hundred of those were confirmed. Many of them were also over one mile wide. We have also been told that more than a hundred of those, were also EF5."_

_Lisa Lavender - "We have reports of the survivors in Arkandra fighting one another in an attempt to obtain the remaining resources or get out of the city. Emergency response teams are unable to get to affected areas due to all the debris. At this point the survivors are at their own mercy, we can only hope the fighting takes no more lives."_

**bridge \ chapter six**

**\----**

Pyrrha and Donnie reach the edge of the river about two minutes later. As Donnie gazes over the river to the other side, Pyrrha shakes her head.

Pyrrha - "Aw."

Donnie looks over at her confused. "Huh?"

Pyrrha - "Remember when I said we can go to Walmart to find better clothes?"

Donnie - "Yeah?"

Pyrrha - "I don't think I was in my right mind when I said that. We can't _go_ to Walmart. The store was destroyed by the tornado. We have to go somewhere else."

Donnie - "Aw. Well I don't want to waste time trying to pick through all this crap, so if we can figure out where we are in the debris swath, we can take the shortest path out of it so we won't need to trudge through the crap."

Pyrrha nods once and sits down with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap.

Donnie wakes up his waterproof phone and opens the Weather Channel app. The app has a new feature that allows tornado survivors to determine where they are in a destroyed city.

The real-time satellite mode allows him to see what the destruction looks like from above, as well as a blue dot and an arrow pointing away from it, that represents his phone. Using a ruler, Donnie can tell how far he is from the nearest edge of the debris swath. The tornado followed Interstate 44 all the way through the city, with most of the tornado staying to the north side of the freeway. The freeway shows up on the satellite mode as only a label, but due to the destruction, Donnie cannot see the freeway itself, or anything that resembles roads or buildings for that matter. According to the ruler, Donnie and Pyrrha are about half a mile away from the southern edge of the debris swath.

Donnie walks toward Pyrrha cautiously. "May I sit next to you?"

Pyrrha, who had been staring at nothing in particular, snaps her head up to look at Donnie, and nods. "Yes you may. I'm sorry."

"No it's okay. I just didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable."

Pyrrha smiles slightly at Donnie's thoughtfulness as he sits down.

"The tornado was three miles wide as you probably know already. But it did not hit us _as_ directly as I thought it did. We're only a half-mile into the debris swath. If we start heading to the south, we can be out of the crap in like an hour."

He shows her his phone.

Pyrrha - "Oh. Okay."

Donnie - "That does require us to get across the river though."

Pyrrha hangs her head in defeat.

Donnie - "Well there's a bridge pretty close to us. We can use it to cross."

A barrage of gunshots suddenly erupts from behind a collapsed building, and an explosion follows soon after, revealing a billowing fireball.

Pyrrha looks at the collapsed freeway bridge. She can see its steel truss frame poking out of the water still. She looks back at the explosion, close to which the gunfire is still raging.

Pyrrha - "Donnie! This fallen bridge is our only shot now. There's no time to get to that other bridge. I have never done what I'm about to do with the amount of power required to do it. So I need you to trust me."

Donnie glances back towards the gunfire, just as about six men peek out from behind the rubble. They spot Pyrrha and Donnie and give chase.

Donnie - "Aw dang."

Pyrrha activates her polarity Semblance, a sheet of black energy surrounding her arms. She focuses on part of the truss, willing her full power to come out. The black glow surrounds the truss as well. Pyrrha closes her eyes and thrusts her arms behind her, yanking herself into the air and over the water. After four seconds she lands on top of a beam of steel that makes up the truss.

Donnie hides behind a slab of concrete, hoping the men with firearms won't see him, while he tries to figure out what Pyrrha is doing. He gets his answer when he hears a low rumble and looks toward the partially-submerged bridge.

The entire bridge is rising slowly out of the water. Horrible groans of metal grinding together fill the air. The water is cascading over the sides of the bridge, falling for dozens of feet. Some of tbe cars that had gone down with the bridge still have their lights on. Several freeway signs on the bridge are bathed in black.

Donnie can make out the words on the closest sign -

Arc Memorial Freeway WESTBOUND

⬇ ⬇ ⬇ ⬇ ⬇

Pyrrha yells at the top of her lungs, " _DONNIE, RUN!_ "

Donnie leaps to his feet, abandoning his hiding spot, and sprints toward the entrance to the bridge as fast as he can, his hands flat rather than in fists. The gunmen have stopped to watch this feat in awe until one of them yells "Get him" and they all begin to run after Donnie.

He glances behind him, seeing flashes of orange, the color the gunmen are wearing. He leaps over the hood of a damaged car and makes a slight right curve to align himself with the bridge.

Pyrrha's nose is starting to bleed with the amount of power she is exerting. Groaning with effort, she continues to hold the bridge up with one hand, while using her left hand to move cars out of Donnie's way so he is unhindered by obstacles. As soon as he runs past a car, Pyrrha moves it in back to a random place on the freeway, creating worse obstacles for the pursuing gunmen. This tactic only works until Donnie gets halfway across the bridge.

One guy apparently has an Rpg and fires it twice.

Two cars explode behind Donnie, one right after the other. The explosions cause Pyrrha to lose her grip on the bridge for a quarter-second, the sheet of black disappearing for as long and the bridge falling about ten feet. Donnie gets slammed to the concrete surface of the freeway but he springs back up and continues to run. Pyrrha's Semblance is getting weaker, the sheet of black getting thinner. The bridge slowly descends back toward the water.

One of the gunmen yells "The bridge is going back down! Hurry!"

The guy with the RPG takes a knee again to fire the weapon twice again. Pyrrha flicks one finger at the gunmen, and a city bus crashes into five of them, knocking them off the bridge. The Rpg rounds hit a car, and then about two seconds later, a fuel truck. Pyrrha grunts as the explosions put a larger strain on her Semblance, her nose is dripping blood like a river now. She can no longer breathe from her nose for risk of inhaling blood, so she opens her mouth, panting in exhaustion.

"Donnie hurry, I can't hold it!" she yells weakly.

About a quarter of the way from the other end, Donnie is passing a second bus.

Pyrrha - "Donnie, get in the bus!"

As Donnie dives through the doors of the bus, she loses her hold on the bridge completely. The road deck falls for three seconds and then slams into the river again, creating a small tsunami on both sides. As the bridge hits the river, the truss collapses into the water. Pyrrha jumps on top of the bus and surrounds it with her polarity Semblance. The bus passes safely in between a space in the truss. She slides off the side of it and falls toward the river, but is able to stop her fall by puling herself up to it with her Semblance. Once she is inside the bus with Donnie, she gets in the driver's seat and moves the bus toward the west end of the bridge entrance, setting it down carefully in one of the five westbound lanes.

Donnie gets out first and holds out his hand to help Pyrrha. She takes it, steps carefully out of the bus, and then she collapses, having lost consciousness.

Donnie - "Aw shit."

Donie dives with his arms outstretched to keep Pyrrha from hitting her head. Once she is in his arms, he sits upright, looking at her closed eyes.

"Pyrrha!"

He checks her arms for scrapes, but is afraid to go any further in his search for injuries out of respect.

He says in a quieter voice, "Pyrrha ..."

**\----**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied - I do have some more notes, but they aren't the massive notes you've been seeing.
> 
> Everybody knows that Pyrrha's Semblance is polarity, meaning she has the ability to handle metal. This chapter was inspired by a movie scene where somebody moves the Golden Gate Bridge from its foundation in order to create a path to Alcatraz. I don't know what that specific film is called, and I've only seen that scene out of the whole film. Consequently, I did not give it a spot in the fandom list, and I wouldn't have been able to anyway because the fandom list already contains three fandoms (RWBY, Into the Storm, GTA V), and I don't like adding more than three to the list.
> 
> Apparently I need some spelling lessons because when I reposted this chapter, I misspelled "handle" with a K rather than with a D. It could also be my phone's keyboard, because even though I consider myself pretty good at spelling and grammar, sometimes my keyboard doesn't detect mistakes, and that has gotten me into a lot of awkward situations.


	7. time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha and Donnie have a moment of calm, trusting each other enough to spill their pasts to the other.
> 
> Slight Spoiler Warning if you haven't seen "Into The Storm".
> 
> Trigger Warning - sexual assault / attempted rape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "520 feet" is a reference to the Evergreen Point pontoon bridge, the longest of its kind on Earth, which carries Washington State Highway 520 across Lake Washington.
> 
> Beacon Academy has been renamed Deaconess Academy, a reference to the real-life Deaconess Medical Center in Downtown Spokane. Reason being because I thought the producers could have come up with a much better name than "Beacon". For some reason, I really hate that word, so I'm sorry if the decision to change it pissed you off, but it stands.
> 
> Obviously, Beacon Tower in the show is much taller than 520 feet. But Spokane's tallest building, the Bank of America Financial Center, is only 288 feet tall, so I didn't want to, for lack of a better word, overcompensate. This version of Beacon Tower is still much taller than the BOA Financial Center, so it will have to be enough.
> 
> Spokane and Spokane Valley are both real cities in Eastern Washington State. Spokane is the second-largest city in Washington, and it has a population of roughly 217-thousand. Spokane is much larger than Spokane Valley, but interestingly enough, Spokane Valley's history begins much earlier than Spokane's. The fic takes place in probably 2024, so the population of Spokane could be about 400-thousand people, and Spokane Valley could be like 180-thousand.

_Lisa Lavender - "More than one-hundred-million people are in danger as this massive tornado outbreak continues into the night. Everybody from Houston to Minneapolis is under a Blanket Tornado Emergency. There are too many tornadoes on the ground to determine what cities will be hit next. We urge anyone who is listening to go seek shelter immediately!"_

**time \ chapter seven**

**\----**

The evening passes uneventfully after the event at the bridge. Pyrrha and Donnie have reached an abandoned department store just outside the range of the debris swath.

Donnie chooses a fresh pair of baggy blue jeans, and gray t-shirt, and a black hoodie.

Pyrrha chooses dark-blue skin-tight jeans, a thin, dark purple jacket, and and orange skin-tight shirt underneath.

Pyrrha and Donnie return to the front of the store, and they both blush and smile sheepishly when they see the other's outfit.

Both young adults say in unison, "I'm sorry," and then chuckle to themselves nervously.

It has started raining outside again, a hard rain but not as ferocious as it had been during the tornado.

They decide to sleep in the store on couches tonight.

Using the lights from their phones, they talk to each other. Funny tales, cringeworthy tales, outrageous tales.

At 1053 pm, Donnie says, "You remind me of my friend Kaitlyn."

Pyrrha - "I do?"

Donnie - "Yeah. Except she had brown hair and brown eyes instead of red and green."

Pyrrha - "What exactly reminds you of her?"

Donnie, in discomfort - "Your clothing choice."

Pyrrha looks down in embarrassment and shame. "I'm ... I'm sorry I remind you of her."

Donnie - "No no, it's okay."

Pyrrha perks up a little and looks at him with a slight smile.

Donnie - "Yeah, I met her on the school's graduation day at Silverton High School, in Silverton, a little city outside of the Oklahoma City metro. Monday May 20th, 2013. She was wearing almost the same-exact outfit you're wearing. I had a crush on her for three years before then and I was too shy and self-conscious say anything to her, but that day she needed my help. She needed help to film a polluted building for an internship project.  Her original project was finished already, but it got corrupted by a virus on the school's computers. The teacher wouldn't let her redo it after graduation. So I offered to help her, brought my camera and hijacked all my brother's editing and sound gear and took it with me."

Pyrrha watches his eyes as he speaks.

"At about noon, my dad tried to call me with his phone, but I thought he was gonna be pissed because I was missing the grad ceremony to help Kaitlyn, so I ignored him. Then he called me using my brother's phone asking where I was, but the signal was lost mid-call. A couple minutes later, a tornado hit the complex we were in and caused the whole thing to collapse on top of us. We hadn't heard a Tornado Warning siren and we didn't get the Tornado Warning on our phones. We got trapped in a hole in the floor for like three hours. As it turns out, the school was partially destroyed by the same tornado that hit us. At about 315, a pipe broke and water started filling up the hole. I called my dad, he teamed up with some storm-riders, and they came to rescue us."

Donnie's eyes start glistening with tears. "The hole filled up with water completely, before my dad and the storm-riders could come get us. Kaitlyn and I were trapped underwater when my brother Trey tried to use a car to move the debris so my father could get to us. My father and a female storm-rider pulled Kaitlyn and me out at the same time. My father was able to resuscitate me but ... Kaitlyn didn't make it. The revival efforts failed. She was dead before they pulled her out."

Pyrrha puts a hand on his shoulder as he continues to speak.

"A few minutes later, my father and the storm-riders successfully convinced Principal Walker that we needed to evacuate the school because we knew another, even bigger, even more powerful tornado was coming. My dad and Trey were in a storm-chasing vehicle called the Titus, and I was in a hijacked school bus with the storm-riders and a buncha kids from our school. We hit a traffic jam on Interstate 44 in Moore directly underneath some electricity pylons. The wind knocked one of those pylons over, and it fell on top of Trey and the driver of the Titus as they were trying to get out."

Pyrrha gasps in shock. Donnie nods sadly in confirmation.

"Yeah that's it. That was the last time I was with my brother."

Pyrrha can feel tears stinging her own eyes.

Donnie - "My father, who was the Vice-Principal for the school, quit his job and became a storm-rider himself. My father knew where to go, and I knew how to film. He got us to the storms, I filmed the tornadoes, we sold them all online, we made bank. He seemed really into it, like it didn't bother him that he was staring at one of the most ferocious forces of nature you can ever experience. Either that or he was trying to be brave for me. In any event, he and I successfully captured about 40 tornadoes on camera and sold the footage to The Weather Channel. About two months ago, they offered us a contract to spot tornadoes around the country for them, basically treating me and him like real meteorologists."

Donnie sighs heavily. "That's what we were trying to do this morning. The tornado killed my father."

Pyrrha's eyes shed a few tears. She lets them fall, but stays silent.

Donnie - "I'm sorry for makin' you cry."

Pyrrha shakes her head. "No, it's okay. I get ... emotional for the people I care about."

Donnie cocks his head to one side, realizing she is talking about him too.

Pyrrha begins her tale.

"I was born in Seattle, and I have always wanted to know how to defend myself, so my father enrolled me at Sanctum Academy, so I could learn how to fight. I won the combat tournaments there for four years straight, and everybody started calling me the Invincible Girl. Nobody knew that when I fight, I take advantage of any metal my opponents are wearing, and I make very subtle adjustments to them to make it look like they can't touch me. I got bored of winning, and I got tired of being called that, so in 2014, I moved to Spokane Valley, Washington, to attend Deaconess Academy. It was a beautiful school with spacious dormitories and a huge cafeteria. The clock tower, where Headmaster Ozpin's office was located, was the tallest building in Eastern Washington, at nearly 520 feet tall. Regular classes aside, the school was also built to teach us all combat skills. There, I met a boy named ... Jaune."

Donnie can tell by the way she says his name that it is a painful subject for her.

"Jaune wasn't as skilled of a fighter as everybody else, but I grew to love him. Due to my status as a master fighter, nobody would talk to me, so I was lonely until Jaune came around. Jaune was born in Arkandra, but he also moved to Spokane Valley to go to Deaconess. We ended up on the same team together with a couple other people, Nora and Ren, operating as Team JNPR. We all got along with each other and with all four female members of Team RWBY. I helped Jaune train to be a better fighter on the roof of our dorm every night, and slowly but surely, he got better and faster, he even defeated me in two battles. To celebrate, we forced Team RWBY into a masive food fight."

Pyrrha chuckles softly at the memory.

"Jaune had no idea who I was when we met, he didn't treat me like the celebrity everyone thought I was. He treated me like ... a normal human. He was uncoordinated, but he had a huge heart. He cared deeply for us whenever we went on field trips to fight gangs in Spokane. Keep in mind, Spokane and Spokane Valley are two different cities."

Pyrrha can feel her voice drying up, she clears her throat, swallows hard, and continues.

"On February 4th, 2016, the entire city of Spokane Valley fell under attack by giant, crab-like monsters and a terrorist organization called the White Fang, led by an egotistical, over-the-top woman called Cindy. We don't know why yet, but Deaconess was at the center of the whole attack. Cindy defeated our Headmaster and retreated to the top of the school's clock tower.

"Jaune tried to stop me from going alone to confront her, so I kissed him to distract him, and then shoved him in a locker. I went to the tower alone and Cindy almost killed me, but Jaune, the rest of my team, and all of Team RWBY made it to the top to save me. Cindy sacrificed herself to have the clock tower destroyed by one of those massive unidentified terrestrial organisms, while all eight of us were in the tower with her."

Pyrrha's voice wavers and her tears are flowing freely now.

"Jaune was incinerated by an RPG, and the monster crashed headfirst into the tower, making it collapse sideways across _all ten_ lanes of Interstate 90, killing Nora, and Ren, and all of Team RWBY. I was the only survivor in the collapse, but then I was hit by a bus that was sliding through the snow on the freeway trying to slow down. I could see the horror on the driver's face as she desperately tried to stop the bus."

Donnie lets Pyrrha lean her head in on his chest as she cries as quietly as she can.

Pyrrha - "I survived. I was the only survivor."

Donnie starts to weep silently, trying to comfort her without her knowing that his heart is also broken.

Donnie - "It's okay."

Pyrrha - "I loved Jaune with all my heart. Not only him, but my other teammates. Nora, Ran, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. I loved all of them. And ... I let them all die."

Pyrrha tenses up when he embraces her in a hug, with her head buried in his shoulder, but it comforts her, and she trusts him.

Pyrrha cries for a few minutes and finally looks up.

"You remind me of Jaune so much. He was wearing something similar to your outfit when I first met him. He was dorky and awkward, but he was also kind, and caring, and loving, ..."

Pyrrha looks into Donnie's eyes ...

"... and I could trust him."

**\- -**

Big Man is alone this time. But his intentions are clear - he wants her again.

Pyrrha is conscious when he starts feeling her, but she is unable to move, unable to scream, unable to breathe. She launches a metal stool at him using her polarity Semblance, but he dodges it casually by stepping backwards as it flies by.

Big Man slaps her so hard the impact sends a shockwave out, shattering the windows. As he moves his hands down her hips, stopping at her jeans, Pyrrha squeals in terror through her closed lips.

When he rips her shirt apart, she finally is able to open her mouth, and she screams.

**\----**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter includes two brief mentions from "Godzilla 2014". Only one of the two references is impossible to miss, so if you don't read Pyrrha's reminiscence carefully, you will miss them both. If you didn't see either reference before now, please go back to Pyrrha's narrative and reread it.
> 
> On top of that, Interstate 90 in Spokane Valley is not actually ten lanes wide. In this story, Beacon Academy was built next to the interstate on top of a massive real-life automobile junkyard. In this area, Interstate 90 is only three lanes wide on each side, a total of six lanes. Of course, the story takes place a few years into the future, so maybe in the future, the freeway will gain four extra lanes, but seeing as Spokane County rarely makes good decisions with its road funding, it probably is not going to happen.


	8. okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of Pyrrha's attackers feels remorse and wants to give her a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "2.6 miles wide" is a reference to the El Reno tornado of 2013, which, at a width of 2.6 miles, was the largest tornado ever recorded.

_Lisa Lavender - "The city of Arkandra has descended into choas, with the survivors of yesterday's tornado attacking each other. Meanwhile, another tornado has formed, and it is heading for the suffering city. The governor of Oklahoma has issued a Mandatory Evacuation order for Arkandra, the Oklahoma City metro, and Tulsa. A Tornado Warning has been placed across the entirety of Oklahoma. Once again, this is a mandatory evacuation order for Arkandra, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa."_

**okay \ chapter eight**

**\----**

At 513 the next morning, Donnie is yanked out of his restless sleep by a woman's piercing scream, causing him to fall off his couch. He turns on his phone's flashlight, searching for the source of the sound. The light falls on a red-haired woman on a different couch, screaming with her eyes closed and flailing her limbs.

Donnie - "Pyrrha?"

Donnie scrambles to his feet and sprints towards her, leaping clear over another couch.

Donnie - "It's okay it's oka -"

Unconscious Pyrrha - "I don't want it!"

Donnie - "Shit. Hey! Pyrrha! Wake up! It's okay you're just drea -"

Pyrrha's unholy screams cut him off before he can finish his sentence.

Pyrrha - "No, get _off_ me! Get _ooooooff_!"

Donnie tries to touch her forehead to wake her up. Bad decision, as Pyrrha can sense him, and she punches him straight up. His back crashes to the ceiling and then he gets slammed back to the floor.

Pyrrha - "AAAAAAGGHH!"

Donnie whispers to himself, "Aw Pyrrha, what the fu -"

Pyrrha shrieks in terror, causing Donnie to cover his ears. The building is starting to collapse from the inside due to Pyrrha having accidentally triggered her polarity Semblance.

Donnie - "Aw shit."

Donnie sees an abandoned bottle of Gatorade sitting by the front door.

Unconscious Pyrrha - "Don't do this!"

He sprints towards it.

Pyrrha - "Stop!"

A ceiling panel hits him in the back, he continues. A metal stool hits his back as well, knocking him forward onto his face. " _AW!_ "

Pyrrha - " _Stoooop!_ "

He looks up, the Gatorade is within reach. He grabs it and climbs to his feet, dashing back toward Pyrrha.

With her eyes still screwed tightly shut, she continues to scream, her wailing is starting to mix in with loud sobs.

Donnie stops and holds the bottle of blue Gatorade over Pyrrha's head.

"Pyrrha!"

He unscrews the cap -

" _Pyrrha_!"

\- and dumps part of it on her face.

Pyrrha sits upright suddenly, sputtering. Donnie slashes the remaining Gatorade across her face, and she finally wakes up and stops screaming. She sees Donnie looking at her with a terrified look, and she starts sobbing. Donnie sinks to both knees and opens his arms, inviting Pyrrha for a hug. She silently accepts, leaning her full weight on him, and he falls backwards with her body on top of his.

Conscious Pyrrha - "I'm so sorry!"

Donnie shushed her gently, not knowing how to help. He decides to let herself simmer down.

Pyrrha gradually descends into a quiet weeping. After about twenty minutes, she speaks.

"Before the tornado hit us, I was raped by two men. In my nightmare, only one of my attackers came back."

Pyrrha takes several shaky breaths.

"He raped me."

Donnie closes his eyes, trying to blink away his tears. He and Pyrrha stay in their embrace for nearly ten more minutes.

**\- -**

Don (Red Beard) and Raeys (Big Man) are sitting on an artificial concrete cliff on the pouring rain, looking down at the smoothly-running freeway below them. Don has sustained several broken ribs and Raeys has cuts on his face.

Don has had a sick feeling inside, ever since the incident with the red-haired woman yesterday. It is consuming him.

Don continues to look at the freeway as he asks, "Why did we do it?"

Raeys slowly turns his head to face Don.

Don - "You know what I'm talking about don't gimme that shit. We did we choose to hurt that girl?"

Raeys - "I asked you if we should celebrate. You gave me a confirmation. We celebrated."

Don suddenly stands up and begins to pace behind Raeys.

"I did it because I hoped you would say no. That's all I've been doing for eleven years, is following you. Stealing cash, fleeing from the law, leaving whole trails of destruction behind. Ever since my parents booted me from my house with nothing, I followed you. I looked up to you. I followed you on these horrible escapades through eight cities, trying to keep up with this life we have now. I trusted you to make the right decisions, to turn me away from the ones that would cause the most harm, and stick to the ones that would keep us alive."

Raeys feels his boiling rage rising but calmly says "You agreed to the deed."

Don leans down to the other man's ear and just about yells, "That! Was not! A " _right_ "! Decision!"

Raeys jumps up to his own feet and roars "You _agreed_ to the deed!"

Don - "We hurt that girl. I hurt that girl. I'm going to find her and apologize for what I did. I'm sorry bro."

Don turns around and begins to walk away. Raeys waits till his back is to him and fires one bullet through his Achilles tendon.

Don screams in pain and falls forward on his hands and knees. He reaches for the tiny RPG on his back and fires one rocket at Raeys, who is standing next to a freeway sign gantry. Raeys dives out of the way. The rocket strikes the gantry and explodes, causing the gantry and the sign it is supporting to crash onto the freeway.

Both men can hear cars slam into the sign and each other. Only Raeys is close enough to the ledge to see the carnage, but he keeps his focus on Don.

Don - "You're gonna try to stop me?! You can't hold me back this time!"

Raeys walks over to the downed man slowly.

Don - "We didn't give her a choice bro! We forced her to do something she did not wanna do! I'm going to give her a chance, so she can decide what happens next! I won't help you anymore just so you can build up your dusty-ass reputation!"

Raeys responds by firing eight bullets into Don's abdomen.

Raeys - "It's far too late, to have a conscience now! You don't just get to turn that on just because you suddenly think it's cool! You will do no such thing! I am going to get her again. Just to stick it to you. Good-bye man."

Raeys walks toward the commercial center, leaving his former partner writhing on the ground.

**\- -**

Pyrrha gazes out the shattered windows listening to the pounding rain. "Did I do all this?"

Donnie nods quickly, trying to suppress a smile.

Pyrrha - "What's funny? I didn't hurt you did I?"

Donnie - "Nope! I was dumb enough to try to touch your head, you punched me to the ceiling, hit me with two things, so I threw a Gatorade at your face."

Pyrrha smiles. " _Gatorade_? Is that what that taste is?"

Donnie and Pyrrha giggle uncontrollably for nearly ten seconds.

They both say "I'm sorry" at the same time.

Pyrrha hugs Donnie tightly. "Thank you for waking me up. That was very brave of you."

Donnie closes his eyes, savoring her touch, as Pyrrha does the same. Then an explosion of thunder hits them.

Donnie nearly jumps out of his skin, and Pyrrha falls to her hands and knees, trying to suppress her scream of pain.

Donnie - "I didn't think it was a thunderstorm. Are you okay?" He reaches for her hand.

Pyrrha - "Yes. Thank you."

Donnie helps her stand up and then checks his phone. He has a Weather Channel notification.

"Aaaawwww dammit."

Pyrrha - "What's wrong?"

Donnie shudders as he taps the notification in order to be taken to the app.

= TORNADO EMERGENCY - ARKANDRA =

Donnie taps the satellite mode button.

= Satellite Mode unavailable =

He taps the More Info button.

= MORE INFO

  * Your Location - Chumash Shopping Center
  * Distance from Tornado - 12.4 miles



TORNADO INFO

  * Size - 2.6 miles wide
  * Speed - 46 miles per hour
  * Heading - 70 (ENE)
  * Intensity - EF5
  * ETA - 16 minutes
  * There are no shelters within a mile of your location. There is one potential shelter located on the Southern Freeway near milepost 4. If you can get there in the next 16 minutes, you must leave immediately. Otherwise, get to the lowest floor towards the center of a windowless building immediately. =



"Aaaawwww _Pyrrha_!"

Pyrrha gasps - "What?!"

Donnie speaks quickly but slowly enough for Pyrrha to understand.

"Another tornado's coming. EF5. We need to get farther south."

Pyrrha - "What does EF5 mean?!"

Donnie uses his hands for emphasis. "Tornadoes are rated by intensity, not wind speed. Enhanced Fujita Scale. EF. There are six levels, Zero through Five. EF5 is the strongest tornado you can have. Windspeed does not matter. You cannot have an EF6 tornado, due to the level of destruction an EF5 tornado can create. The tornado that hit us yesterday, was an EF5."

Pyrrha's chest tightens as she slowly grasps what he is telling her.

"Another EF5 tornado is coming. It is 15 minutes away. It is more than two-and-a-half miles wide. It is _time_ , for us to get the _fuck_ out of here!"

Pyrrha's head flashes back to her earlier tornado experience. Trapped on her back, unable to move, being crushed under the ceiling -

Donnie roughly taps Pyrrha's shoulder once, and she snaps out of it. They both quickly run out of the building as the wind picks up.

Five bullets bury themselves in the concrete right by their feet. Pyrrha and Donnie dive behind a parked Audi. Pyrrha's heart races in her chest, and she wills herself to take a peek. Donnie does the same.

A large, heavyset man with a machine gun is stalking toward them. Pyrrha begins to hyperventilate.

Donnie - "Pyrrha, do you know him? Who is that?"

Panicking, Pyrrha manages to get out, "It's one of my rapists!"

**\----**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The way Donnie wakes Pyrrha up is similar to something that happened to me. I don't remember this, my sister-in-law recalled it to me after the fact. My brother had to throw Gatorade at my face after I fainted in his kitchen.


	9. pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha and Donnie kill her attackers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter you get to see what Donnie's Semblance is. While it probably isn't the best I could come up with, it's one I've never seen while watching the show.

**pain \ chapter nine**

**\----**

Donnie feels rage in his heart, something he has not felt for more than fifteen years. The pounding rain fails to cool down his hot face.

Out of the corner of his eye he can see Pyrrha rising to run away. He turns his whole head to face her and nods in her direction.

Pyrrha feels a sudden sharp pain in both legs and falls to her hands and knees. The pain subsides immediately, just as fast as it had arisen, and she makes another attempt to run before feeling an even worse sharp pain, causing her to cry out.

"Pyrrha, that was my attempt to get you to stay down!"

Pyrrha obeys, confused on what has just happened.

Donnie rises to his feet and steps from behind the car.

To the Big Man - "Why did you hurt her?!"

Big Man does not answer, he just breaks into a run.

**\- -**

Don has stumbled after Raeys toward road near the shopping center, clutching his abdomen the whole way.

He can see Raeys running at the red-haired woman and a boy who is with her.

With all his strength, Don yells at the top of his lungs, "RAAAAEEEEYYS!"

**\- -**

Donnie focuses on the man's legs and nods again. The man yelps and falls to the road's concrete surfacing.

Donnie - "Answer the question!"

Big Man reaches for the machine gun he has dropped. Donnie looks at the hand he is using to reach for the weapon and nods. The man yelps even louder.

Donnie - "This is your last warning! Answer my question! _Why did you hurt her?!_ "

Big Man - "I ain't fuckin' afraid of -"

His sentence is cut off by searing pain all over his body. He feels as though hundreds of knives are slicing through him as slowly as they can. His voice cracks as he screams and bellows in pain, his face twisted up in anguish.

Donnie lets him go briefly to speak. "You chose her path for her. I gave you a choice of your own just now. You made the wrong decision."

The man lays on his belly, his bloody face giving Donnie a terrified expression. Donnie grabs hold of him again.

His screams pierce the air. Pyrrha holds her hands over her ears, trying to block it out. She looks at the man. Donnie is not touching him, he is nowhere near the man, so why is he screaming?

Big Man roars in pain, curled into the fetal position on his side, for an entire minute, before he is suddenly silent. Donnie releases him. He has stopped moving. Donnie checks for the man's pulse. He no longer has one.

Donnie grabs the dropped machine gun and turns toward the woman cowering by the Audi.

Breathing hard, Pyrrha rises slowly to her feet, this time unhindered by pain. She uncovers her ears. A thunderclap sounds from overheard but to her surprise, it does not hurt her this time. She sees Donnie staring intently at her.

Pyrrha breathlessly asks, "What happened? I can't hear him anymore."

Donnie - "He's dead. I ... I killed him."

Pyrrha notes the lack if pain and then asks, "Are you doing that?"

Donnie nods slowly and his face turns remorseful.

"My Semblance is nerve manipulation. I've used it only once before to deter my bullies in first grade. I can make people feel pain, and I can take their pain away temporarily. And I'm so sorry for using it on you. I just didn't want him to target you for running."

Pyrrha runs up to him and embraces him in a hug. "Thank you ... so much."

Several seconds later, they hear a wet thump beside them. Both young adults look to see a wounded, red-bearded man with a miniature RPG, slumped to his knees beside them in the rain.

Pyrrha whimpers. Donnie understands.

Thunder wraps around them again, but Donnie suppresses Pyrrha's pain reaction to it. She feels it for a split second but it disappears before she can react to it.

Donnie turns to the downed man. "Why did you hurt her?"

The man looks up slowly, his face filled with deep remorse. He struggles to say "I don't know why".

Donnie spots his hand clutching his gut, and he suppresses his pain so he can talk normally.

Red Beard - "I thought I was trying to impress my friend. But I didn't realize the full scale of what I'd done until after the fact. The tornado hit us and -"

Donnie releases the man, and the man collapses to his hands and knees in pain. Donnie angrily blurts "The tornado doesn't have anything to do with this!"

Pyrrha puts a gentle hand on Donnie's shoulder. "Let him speak. I want to hear him out."

Donnie turns back to him. "This is about you, why you did this to her. Continue." Donnie suppresses his pain again.

Red Beard - "We barely survived the tornado. I broke a buncha ribs, Raeys got his face cut up real good. We just came over here and didn't talk to each other. It is killing me, what I did to you. Raeys had no shred of guilt when I confronted him about it, so I told him I was coming to apologize to you."

Red Beard - "He told me he was coming to get you again. I couldn't let him, but I couldn't stop him either."

Pyrrha puts a hand to her mouth when she sees his bullet wounds for the first time.

Red Beard turns his head to face Pyrrha. When he speaks, his voice wavers. "I am so sorry for hurting you for no reason. I am sorry for not giving you a choice. My name is Don, and I came back to give you a choice."

Don's gaze moves to the ground as he surrenders his RPG. Pyrrha knows what he is asking, her eyes water as she takes it in her hands.

Don - "I deserve nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else."

Pyrrha closes her eyes and takes a shaky breath. Her eyes are flooded with tears. "Thank you for your apology and your honesty. I will make this quick."

Pyrrha and Donnie step backwards until they are more than fifty feet away.

Pyrrha regretfully says, "I'm sorry," and then fires one small rocket at Don.

Don can just barely make out the girl's words "I'm sorry" before his whole world burns briefly and then plunges into darkness.

**\----**


	10. bus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The adults attempt to escape from the city.
> 
> I found another massive paragraph break in this chapter as well, right before the third "GRENADE THROUGH THE WINDOW". I don't know why it is happening, but I've edited this chapter probably twenty times, and I have been taking out the giant paragraph break each time. I've gotten tired of removing it because it isn't supposed to be there, so I'm just going to leave it. Hopefully it doesn't get any bigger than that because that will just make me even more mad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest and most chaotic chapter in the fic. It doesn't really tie in to the plot other than, all the characters need to leave where they are and get to shelter.
> 
> I had just decided to add Franklin, Lamar, and Trevor to the fic just before creating this chapter.
> 
> You will get to see more of Pyrrha and Donnie's Semblances in this chapter, including a description of Franklin's Semblance, and a totally new Semblance for Lamar.
> 
> I don't play GTA V that much, mostly because the last time I played was with my younger brother, and he recently destroyed his PS3, so it won't happen again for a while. I may struggle a bit with the dialogue for Franklin, Lamar, and Trevor, so just bear with me.
> 
> This chapter was inspired by the GTA V Grove Street and Deathwish battles, and has scenes inspired by several of the Neebs Gaming GTA V cinematic videos.
> 
> The title of tbe chapter is "Bus". You can expect a bus to be pushed to its limits here. Although I don't know why the busses in GTA V are so ... fucking ... SLOW.

_Lisa Lavender - "This morning we have more breaking news from Arkandra, as another immense tornado makes its way through the city, parallel to, but just south of, the path of the previous tornado. Civilian analyses from a few minutes ago strongly suggest the strength of this tornado to be EF5. The tornado is barrelling towards a massive gun battle at the Chumash Shopping Center. We can only hope those people know what is coming and that they all find shelter quickly."_

**bus \ chapter ten**

**\----**

The explosion can be heard for miles.

Several dozen gunmen wearing purple jackets, white shirts, and blue baggy jeans emerge from one of the stores adjacent to the one Pyrrha and Donnie are standing in front of. Three of the purple men have tiny RPGs, one of them fires his at Donnie and Pyrrha. They sprint away from the Audi they were planning to "commandeer" just as it explodes twice.

Another rocket flies toward Pyrrha. She activates her polarity Semblance and sweeps one hand downward, making the rocket crash into the ground before it can reach her and Donnie. The rocket hits part of concrete that was built above a gas line, which creates a massive line of explosions and a shockwave. Pyrrha hears several F-bombs flying from the mouths of the purple men.

Donnie - "What is this?!"

A short, stocky African-American man with a small semiautomatic weapon has appeared beside him and Pyrrha. He is wearing a blue-grey polo, baggy black pants, and a green bandana around his neck. "It's a Balla ambush, man! Use that fuckin' weapon!"

"Franklin! What da hell, man! I told you to say where they at!"

A taller, skinnier black man with a pistol runs up to the shorter, stocky man's side. He is wearing baggy black jeans and a simple baggy white shirt with an identical green bandana hanging from his back pocket.

"Shut dafuq up Lamar! I didn't know where they was at! They all over the damn place! We need to git dafuq up outta here! We have some mo' wind comin'!"

Lamar - "Dafuq that _mean?!"_

An older Caucasian man with dark thinning hair runs up to them wearing khaki pants and an orange A-shirt, holding a pump shotgun.

Pyrrha and Donnie yell in unison, "Another tornado is coming!"

Franklin cocks his head to the side as he looks at he partner Lamar, confirming his sentence.

Lamar - "Fuck!"

Donnie spots an articulated bus sitting on the seven-lane road with its hazard lights on and all three of its doors open.

Donnie - "You four! In the bus now!"

Pyrrha starts running to the bus, trailed by Donnie and the three new men, Franklin, Lamar, and the older man.

A rocket flies in front of the group of five and blows up a car, forcing them to head back to the shopping center. Pyrrha loses her footing and falls on her back, just as one of the car's doors fly towards her. She uses her Semblance to redirect the door away from her and toward two Ballas.

Pyrrha gets back her feet and dives for cover behind a short concrete wall. "We need to leave! How much time?!"

Donnie checks the app while Pyrrha and the other three men hold their position with their weapons. "Uh, ten minutes!"

The older man takes a shot with his weapon, eliminating two Ballas through their heads.  The Ballas start focusing all their fire on him.

"They're ganging up on meeee!"

Franklin - "I gotchu Trevor! Hey lady, I need tha RPG right there!"

Pyrrha - "I got it!"

Pyrrha fires a rocket at a group of them near the bank. The rocket flies through a window to the bank, and the building explodes from the inside and collapses. A chunk of the wall hits a Balla, killing him.

Trevor, the older man, gets shot once in the arm and a sheet of orange light surrounds him as he recoils. "Aw, that shit hurt!"

Franklin - "Trevor, you aight?!"

Trevor - "I'll be fine! The better question is, will _theeeeyy_ be!"

Trevor hunches down low briefly before standing straight up again, above the height of the short concrete wall they are behind. He proceeds to down thirty Ballas in as many seconds, while taking only four hits, his Aura flashing an orange glow each time.

Franklin peeks above the wall and is promptly shot in the face. His Aura flashes green as it protects him from damage, and he stumbles backwards. "Ah!"

Lamar - "Oh hell no I know you did not just -"

Lamar stands up as well and is immediately shot in the chest. His Aura flares in a yellow color, protecting him from damage, but he remains standing. While taking four more direct hits to the chest, Lamar raises his hands high and throws them both toward the ground.

The entire ground about fifty feet away explodes, and the massive fireball takes ten more Ballas out. Pyrrha can see two of them hovering the sky before gravity takes hold of them.

Pyrrha - "That Semblance is simultaneously horrific ... and awesome!"

Lamar - "Incendiary Semblance! I can make shit go _boom_!"

Franklin - "You couldn't do that befo' _now_?!"

Lamar - "I can only _do_ it, if somethin' pisses me _off_!"

Franklin - "Well what pissed you off?"

Lamar - "You, gitt'n shot in da face!"

Franklin - "And was you not pissed enough befo'?!"

Lamar opens his mouth to speak, but another, smaller, closer explosion interrupts him.

Pyrrha - "Everybody take cover in The Plaza!"

All five of them retreat a block to the south through the relentless pounding rain, to the Arkandra Plaza, operated by Arkandra Public Transit Authority. The Ballas continue their gunfire and chase them into the building. Donnie feels a tiny sharp pain in his back as a bullet hits him, causing his Aura to flare up in a true blue color. The gunfire only stops once they are all inside the building.

The dozens of civilians in the Plaza are confused as they look outside.

Pyrrha, Donnie, and their three new allies are stuggling to catch their breaths. Donnie shakes his head in annoyance and starts to fiddle with his machine gun.

Machine gunfire can be heard outside, causing everybody in the building to duck. Several seconds later, an unidentified man outside yells " _Grenade through_ _the window!_ "

Pyrrha and Donnie's heads both snap toward the door, their eyes following the tiny round explosive device as it shatters the window. It lands on the floor six feet from Donnie. People start screaming and fleeing. Pyrrha gasps and sprints over to Donnie and tackles him out of the way.

While both friends are halfway done with their trip to the floor, the grenade explodes, killing eight people instantly, shaking the whole building. Fire, glass, brochures, and people fly in all directions. Pyrrha and Donnie are blasted farther along their path of escape, sliding along the ground.

Franklin - "C'mon we gotta git the _fuck_ up outta here!

Three seconds pass after the first explosion before the man again yells "GRENADE through the window!"

Pyrrha grabs Donnie by the waist and lifts him up with her left arm. As they start running again, Pyrrha desperately says " We need to get in -"

She is cut off by the explosion of the second grenade just behind them. Both friends stumble slightly but are able to keep running, with Pyrrha still holding Donnie's waist.

 

 

 

 

"GRENADE THROUGH THE WINDOW!"

Lamar - "Shit!"

_*_ _PYOOSSSSHH!*_

Pyrrha and Donnie reach the glass doors and throw themselves through them.

" _GRENADE through_ _the window_!"

The fourth grenade lands inside the building next to shattered doors.

_*PYOOSSSSHH_ _*_

The fourth explosion sends Pyrrha, Donnie, and eight other people flying through the air. Pyrrha lands on her back and slides along the ground. The impact knocks the breath from her lungs, her Aura shattering in a brilliant bright red, totally depleted now.

Her eyes are ringing, her vision is blurry, but she succeeds in standing on her feet again.

Only one bus, articulated, is sitting outside.

Donnie yells out to everyone in the building. "Hey! We have six minutes to evacuate this building before the next tornado hits us! This building _will_ collapse! If you stay in here, you _will_ not survive! Your best bet is to either leave with us or find underground shelter! Do it now!"

That gets everybody still alive to move in panic. Several dozen civilians run up to Pyrrha and Donnie.

Pyrrha - "Get in the bus! NOW!"

All five allies start running again. The wind outside has picked up significantly, noticeably rocking the bus. Donnie sees this as well and glances at his Weather Channel app. According to the app, the tornado is only three miles away, but he can still feel its effects.

Pyrrha - "Lamar, Franklin, Trevor, you three come with us!"

The five allies and their trailing civilians sprint toward the bus. The wind is flowing fast to the north, corresponding to the tornado's counterclockwise rotation. The grey wall of wind can be seen to the west in the spaces between the buildings, destroying them and sweeping everything to the right. The civilians scream and shove each other in the bus, with Pyrrha, Lamar, and Franklin all cramming in as well.

Franklin asks the bus driver, "Is you drivin'?!"

The driver manages to get out "Well I don't know what the fuck -"

Franklin - "Then git the fuck outta the drivers seat!"

Both men's words are spoken in a way that allows them both to simutaneously say "the fuck".

Donnie - "Five minutes man!"

As Trevor climbs in the bus he says to Donnie's face, "Aw shut the fuck up!"

Donnie suddenly throws Trevor out of the bus and grabs him with his nerve manipulation Semblance. Trevor promptly drops to his hands and knees in extreme pain. For ten long seconds, Trevor feels as if knives are moving slowly across his entire body. Donnie releases Trevor, who looks up at him.

Donnie - "I have no clue who you are, so you don't tell me what to do. You just experienced my nerve-manipulation Semblance. I _killed,_ somebody with that earlier. Do not test me again!  _Understand?!_ "

Donnie helps Trevor back to his feet and says, "The 'respect your elders' card doesn't work, if you don't _show_ it _first_! Now get the _hell_ back in the bus!"

Donnie shoves Trevor in the bus, and gets in after him.

Franklin turns the windshield wipers on to see through the sideways rain, then he stomps the gas pedal.

Pyrrha spots flashes of pale green Suvs behind them. Donnie can see an entire gang of motorcycles on an adjacent one-way road.

Pyrrha - "Aaaawwww _Franklin_!"

Franklin - "Yeah, I gotchu!"

Franklin taps into his time-distortion Semblance, something he only knows how to do while driving. The air around Pyrrha becomes rippled as the bus miraculously weaves in between tight spaces at seemingly slow-motion. Any lights Pyrrha can see are long and drawn out for several seconds.

Franklin slams the bus against two of the persuing green Suvs, crushing them between the bus and a wall on the right side just before the entrance to the Southern Freeway. Driving at 40 miles per hour, but still in slow motion, Franklin yanks the bus to the right to turn southbound onto the freeway. The bus turns flawlessly and continues to drive in a straight line down the on-ramp without ever losing its speed. Franklin then deactivates his Semblance.

Donnie - " _YEAH_! Commencin' Operation Car-Sandwich!

Franklin - "Where's tha E-brake? These things always have a E-brake!"

Franklin finds what he is looking for before anybody can answer him. Franklin pulls the emergency brake slightly and swerves to the left and then the right. The rear half of the bus, behind the joint, slides wildly and takes out six motorcycles and a third green SUV.

Pyrrha and the other passengers can see tiny yellow lines fly past the bus, the bikers are shooting at them. Pyrrha crushes a window with her Semblance and leans out of it just as the bus drives through an overpass. Pyrrha grabs a hold of the overpass's internal metal rebar and pulls down, making the entire span collapse on top of four bikes. One more bike is still chasing them. As it pulls up to the right side of the bus next to Pyrrha's window, she grabs into and holds it just above the bus as it passes underneath an exit sign. The bike and its rider crash through the sign, sending the pieces flying ahead of the bus.

Two more Suvs are still persuing the bus and shooting. Lamar pokes out of a different window and swipes one hand toward the ground, using his Semblance to blow them both up.

As the freeway transfers back above ground, the taller buildings have melted away, and the wind is now pushing against the bus.

The passengers start screaming in terror as they can see the buildings a half-mile out being destroyed and thrown to the right.

Donnie - "Tornado!"

The bus crashes into a piece of rubble. Franklin flies out of the window due to not wearing a seatbelt. He crashes to the concrete, his green Aura shattering, and he is unable to immediately rise to his feet.

Pyrrha and Lamar rush over to him and help him up. They run away just as a chunk a a building falls onto the freeway right where they had just been.

Pyrrha, Franklin, Lamar, and Trevor, along with the civilians, flee from the bus toward a large tunnel entrance on the side of the freeway. At the entrance, Pyrrha notices Donnie is missing. She starts calling his name.

"Donnie!"

Donnie is standing in the center of the freeway, staring at the tornado, his head craned almost all the way up. Debris and rubble is starting to fall into the freeway, threatening to crush him.

"Donniiiiee!"

Pyrrha sprints toward him as a trailer falls from the sky.

" _Donnie heads up!_ "

She uses her Semblance to move the trailer farther along its own path so it will not hit Donnie. She tackles him to the ground, and finally he snaps out of it.

Pyrrha points to the tunnel entrance. "We need to go now!"

She yanks him to his feet and they run. The tornado's winds are throwing a building sideways across the freeway. Miraculously dodging the huge chunks of concrete, Pyrrha and Donnie make it to the tunnel, just as a massive piece of the building crashes down just behind them, sealing them in.

Donnie - "Get up against the walls and cover your heads!"

The ground begins to quake as they all do what he says. Something explodes just outside the tunnel, putting cracks in the concrete walls of the tunnel.

Pyrrha wails in despair as she is overwhelmed by the memories of the first tornado. Donnie appears beside her and he holds onto her tightly.

Pyrrha - "I'm scared!"

Donnie - "It's okay! I promise you, we _will_ get through this!"

Pyrrha - "I don't wanna die today!"

Donnie continues to hold Pyrrha tightly. She whimpers quietly and then the tunnel lights flicker out.

**\----**


	11. Sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha and Donnie leave Arkandra.

Lisa Lavender - "The second tornado that hit Arkandra was indeed an EF5. It would usually be hard to tell the difference between the paths of the two tornadoes, but the second tornado stayed to the south of the first tornado's path, which makes the overall debris swath look more than four miles wide.

This event is part of the massive tornado outbreak that is ongoing across the Great Plains. We have more tornadoes predicted, but according to the Weather Channel, Arkandra will not be hit again.

The total destruction in Arkandra is something to behold. The city's downtown area was hit directly by both tornadoes. Early estimates are putting the death toll at seven-thousand in Arkandra and 2,985 in the Oklahoma City metro. This really is the worst tornado outbreak in recorded history."

**sky \ chapter eleven**

**\----**

The air traffic control tower at the Arkandra International Airport suffered a direct hit from the first tornado. Now, several helachoppers are acting as the eyes in the sky, with professional air traffic controllers in each one.

The evening has fallen on the destroyed city, with the rain still falling.

It has been about two weeks since the first tornado hit.

Pyrrha and Donnie come to a stop in front of an electric flight list. Pyrrha can see several flights to Spokane, Washington. Only one of them, Translucent Airlines Flight 412, is still scheduled, but it is delayed.

Donnie spots an airline clerk, and he and Pyrrha walk over to her.

Donnie - "Do you know how long the last flight to Spokane will be delayed?"

The clerk - "Um, that flight is getting ready to depart actually. In about twenty minutes they will leave. It's normally a scheduled flight between here and Spokane, but today, it's free due to the tornadoes. You can catch it at Gate J-11."

Pyrrha nods.

Donnie nods as well and says "Thank you ma'am."

"You're welcome. Have a good day young man, and you as well, miss."

Pyrrha - "Thank you."

Heading to the Gate, Pyrrha looks out the glass window. She can clearly see a plane parked there, but she only see the back end of the plane. It has a tail shape she has never seen before, resembling a bridge more than a classic horizontal and vertical stabilizer. This design has four vertical stabilizers, and two horizontal ones, with one built below the verticals, and the other built on top of them. It does have the circle-and-slash symbol on the side of the left-most vertical stabilizer, the unmistakable logo of Translucent Airlines.

"Donnie, what kind of aircraft is this?"

Donnie looks to the right so he has a view of the plane in question. "That's an Antonov An-850. It's the largest passenger aircraft on Earth. Only two-hundred of them exist, and fifty of them were sold to Translucent Airlines. This one is about to leave, so we need to move."

They customs officer at the entrance to the gate asks them, "Do you have anything that isn't allowed to be in the plane?"

Pyrrha - "Just our phones sir."

Customs officer - "Alright, go ahead and step through the metal detector please."

Pyrrha does so first, and then Donnie. The machine gives them a literal green light.

Customs officer - "You're good. Have a good flight."

Pyrrha and Donnie simultaneously say "Thank you sir."

The jet is completely packed except for a window seat just in front of the left engine. The engine is massive, big enough to fit two busses in, either side-by-side or stacked. As soon as the two young adults sit down, Pyrrha looks to the left out of her window, just as the giant turbofan starts rotating faster, until she can no longer see individual blades.

Translucent Airlines Flight 412 departs from Arkandra International Airport at 620pm, gliding smoothly into the sky with absolutely no problems.

The Captain - <Ladies and gentlemen, we are on our way to Denver. We have one stopover there for about three hours, then we will depart for the final leg to Spokane. Please get comfortable. Thank you.>

Pyrrha gazes down at their city. "Donnie ..."

Donnie follows her gaze.

The areas that were hit by the two tornadoes look unrecognizable. Fires are all over the city. The Downtown area's buildings have all collapsed except for exactly three skyscrapers that are sitting at the edge of the debris swath. Tiny red and blue flashing lights are everywhere throughout the city. The Shawcross River, which was once a pristine dark-blue color, is now a murky brown. And all the river bridges in the debris swath have been dismantled and moved several-hundred yards.

Pyrrha takes a shallow breath. "That's incredible."

Donnie nods slowly. "On the Enhanced Fujita Scale, EF5 damage is considered 'incredible', precisely for this reason."

Pyrrha - "How did we survive that? _Why_ did we survive that?"

All Donnie can do is shake his head slowly in response.

Pyrrha continues to gaze at the destruction until the clouds block her view.

A couple hours through the flight, Pyrrha awakens with a gasp, and she then knocked back to the chair by severe nausea. Fighting through it, she wakes Donnie up.

Pyrrha - "Donnie, I need to use the bathroom."

Donnie - "Oh! I'm sorry."

Pyrrha puts on a weak smile for him. As soon as she is out, she rushes to the bathroom.

Due to the massive size of the Antonov-850, it takes her near two minutes to get back there.

Opens the door. Closes the door. Locks the door. And promptly vomits.

The nausea returns after she finishes. She continues to fight through it, and she proceeds to clean up the sink. She notices her breasts are sore as well.

She has read about how to determine if a woman is pregnant without a pregnancy test. A pregnancy can be a joyous occasion for most women.

Pyrrha is not most women.

It takes only twenty seconds for her to return to Donnie running at thirty miles per hour.

Once she has arrived, she forcefully whispers his name.

Donnie, who has nodded off again, jumps awake. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Pyrrha takes a shaky breath. "It's possible to determine a positive for pregnancy without taking a pregnancy test. I looked at the signs on the internet a long time ago, before the battle in Spokane Valley. I applied some of those signs to something that just happened to me. I puked when I got to the bathroom. I was dizzy, my breasts are very sore."

Donnie takes a very brief peak at her breast, and he promptly looks away when he realizes Pyrrha saw him take a look.

Pyrrha smiles slightly. "Donnie, you can look, it's okay."

Donnie rubs his face with one hand. "So what does this mean?"

Taking another breath, Pyrrha says, "I think I'm pre - I'm pregnant."

"Okay, well, you're pregnant. That's a good thing right?"

Pyrrha forgives him for forgetting, but her face falls slowly and her tears start flowing freely, causing Donnie to remember.

"Aaaawww shit ..."

Pyrrha sits down in the aisle seat next to Donnie. Pyrrha closes her eyes in an effort to keep any more tears from falling, but the effort is useless.

Pyrrha leans her head on his shoulder as she sobs. Donnie puts a hand on her shoulder to show his support. Pyrrha then pulls her face into his chest. Donnie hesitates a little, and then returns her hug.

**\----**

**end story**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is a very short chapter with what I think was a weak ending.
> 
> Overall, my satisfaction with this entire story, on a scale of 1 to 10, would be like, a 6 ... Point-5.
> 
> I really enjoyed creating the action sequences, especially the tornado sequences at the beginning. I tried to adhere to the Enhanced Fujita Scale as much as I could, knowing that it is possible for an EF5 tornado to be able to level a skyscraper with enough power. I always enjoy writing about Pyrrha's powerful Semblance displays, and I'm always trying to find new ways to display her ability.
> 
> I know that I am not good at the emotional parys of my stories. This comes from a limited vocabulary on my part, and admittedly it is the main thing that holds me back when writing. Even if my action sequences are good, I fall short at the emotions, which lowers the quality of my work.
> 
> For some reason, nobody wants to comment on my work. And the few people who do decide to comment, offer very little advise. I've seen worse work within this website and those works get a ton of comments. So I know what I'm doing wrong, but without advise I can actually use, it won't get any better.
> 
> I created Translucent Airlines in 2014, after the death of my Grandmother, so I could use it in a novel that I was working on. The novel depicts a violent tornado outbreak in Minneapolis. All the work I was doing on that novel was lost earlier this year, when the backpack containing the papers and the flash drive was stolen. Translucent Airlines is now what I call myself in many internet sites.
> 
> The number 412 is a reference to my sister's birth date, April 12th. The number 620 references my own birth date, June 20th. And "J-11" is a reference to my nephew, who was born in November of 2018, with a name that starts with J.
> 
> I was trying to come up with an ending to this fic before my 23rd birthday, Thursday June 20th 2019. I finished it the next day.


End file.
